WASHINGTON (CNN) -- National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that administration records -- including former White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke's own words and actions -- prove false his "scurrilous allegation that somehow the president of the United States was not attentive to the terrorist threat."

Forcefully rebutting Clarke's testimony Wednesday to the 9/11 commission, Rice called reporters to her West Wing office and said that on July 5, 2001 -- two months before the terrorist attacks -- she personally ordered Clarke to alert domestic agencies that they needed to be on alert for the possibility of a terror strike.

Rice said she did so because of a "threat spike" in U.S. intelligence. While the intelligence suggested al Qaeda attacks in the Persian Gulf region or Israel, Rice said she and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card decided to ask Clarke to take some precautions domestically.

Clarke testified Wednesday that the administration did little in the spring and summer of 2001 to prepare for possible attacks in the United States. To rebut that charge, Rice released unclassified portions of an e-mail Clarke sent to her on September 15, 2001, four days after the attacks.

While Rice chose to sing with the Liar's Choir, Clarke was a picture of marked contrast. Both literally AND figuratively, Richard Clarke bravely stood alone at the 9/11 hearing - and came away a true American patriot.